What's your most accurate .38 Sp. load with bevel base 148WC?

[1KPerDay]

I have a few boxes of these (Speer) left from the 60s and 70s. Inherited. Note that these are not the typical soft HBWC. I want to try my 2" M10 in the forum CCW/Pocket pistol challenge and I don't really want to build 20 different loads. These are the only suitable projectiles I have ATM. anyone have a known good one or a fave? I will confirm with published data which I have.

 

[ArchAngelCD]

It's hard to pick a "best" because of all the variables in guns.

I used to shoot Remington HPWC bullets that were very accurate. Today I'm shooting cast DEWC bullets from Magnus or the MBC.

 

[1KPerDay]

I understand. However there was a general "standard" for bullseye shooting with the HBWC. I Just wondered if anyone had heard of a similar "known good" load wth these.

 

[forrest r]

2.5gr clays
2.7gr/2.8gr bullseye
3.0gr hp-38/ww231
2.5gr wst
3.0gr AA#2
2.7gr 700x
2.7gr reddot
2.3gr trailboss

Any of those loads will be accurate with a 148gr wc.

 

[kidneyboy]

148gr cast button nose wadcutter - 3.1gr bullseye. Worked pretty well in my Taurus snubbie.

 

[1KPerDay]

Well I decided to stick with published loads for the first test... old Speer data for these bullets starts at 4.1 HP-38 and goes up to 4.7. I loaded 20 at 4.1 and 15 at 4.5 and will report back.

 

[dgod]

HP-38 is good, Power Pistol is also good, just off the top of my head..

Good Luck
dg

 

[joneb]

I still have some of those #4605, wish I could find more.
I had very good results with 3.4gr of Bullseye with GM-100 primers, I used a medium crimp to the groove COL 1.282"
Very accurate in a S&W 10-5 6" and a S&W 36 1 7/8"
https://www.thehighroad.org/index.php?attachments/reloading-jpg.76236/
Whoops the target says 148gr swc it should be WC which is the BBWC my bad.
I forgot to mention the brass was trimmed at 1.146"

 

[ArchAngelCD]

Well I decided to stick with published loads for the first test... old Speer data for these bullets starts at 4.1 HP-38 and goes up to 4.7. I loaded 20 at 4.1 and 15 at 4.5 and will report back.

I shoot 3.2gr W231/HP-38 under a 148gr HBWC
I shoot 3.4gr W231 under a 148gr DEWC
I have loaded as high as 4.0gr W231 under a DEWC but no higher.

The 3.4gr W231 load with a double ended WC is extremely accurate in all my 38/357 revolvers.

 

[joneb]

I will add to my above post that the 3.4gr of Bullseye worked best in the M 36 and the 3.5gr load worked best in the M 10-5.
I settled on the 3.4gr load as it preformed well in both.

 

[Hanshi]

For my shooting it's an oldy but goody. 3.2 grains of Bullseye.

 

[1KPerDay]

Initial results with moderate crimp: shooting at orange dot target pasty offhand at 10 yards, 3.8, 4.1, and 4.5 HP-38 all produced identical looking 3" groups at 1-2 o'clock with the center of the groups maybe 3 inches up and to the right a little from POA. With black pasties the groups shrunk to around 2", with the best group at 4.5 and the worst at 3.8. Further groups shot on bullseye targets showed POI at 12 o'clock but with 3.8 still the worst groups. Trying some more at 3.8, 3.5, and 3.3 with very slight taper crimp into the groove and some similarly crimped ones at 4.1 and 4.5 to see if anything improves. Hopefully I'll get a good load before I run out of these unobtainable bullets. LOL

 

[1KPerDay]

The above groups were fired offhand which really tells us nothing useful. I next fired a couple of groups from a seated improvised rest at 10 yards which is about as far as I can see a sharp 3" bull. Actually it's not that sharp. I need to update my prescription.

I used a moderate crimp before and thought I'd better try a light one to see if it improved things.

Shot two groups each with charges of 3.1, 3.3, 3.5, 3.8, 4.1, and 4.5, with very light crimp into the crimp groove. I used the 6 o'clock hold for all. 4.1 and 3.8 seem to be the best when considering the consistency of both groups. Then I tried the cartridges I loaded with 3.1 but seated them just below flush with the case mouth and crimped just enough to round over the mouth slightly. These printed higher into the 10 ring like the hotter loads above did, and shot the smallest groups of the day. Looks like we have a winner.

Posting pics with group sizes below for any interested.